Weaknesses
by Celestial Dragon in flight
Summary: Original Spyro Story. The trouble begins when two theives rob the Artisan Archives. The dragons don't know where the records will end up but they do know that in the wrong hands, they could cause disaster for the Dragon Realms.
1. Chapter 1

In writing this story, I'm not including the events of _Spyro: Shadow Legacy_ from Spyro's past. This is because I don't know enough about this adventure to properly integrate it into the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from the Spyro games

**Chapter 1**

"Hey man, maybe we shouldn't do this. If the dragons catch us here, we're toast, literally."

The master thief sighed, turned to his partner and whispered, "Look. We've just broken into the Artisan Archives. Don't you think it's a little late for second thoughts now?"

Two blue eyes stared out from beneath the layers of wrappings for a few moments before the other responded, "I guess you're right." Then after a brief pause he asked, "What are we after again?"

The more experienced robber stifled the urged to smack his partner. He had the nerve to ask that now? In the middle of the assignment?

After giving himself a moment to calm down, he held up a piece of paper and said, "We need to find the books that match this list of topics and get out of here. The sooner we deliver the goods, the bigger our paycheck. You have your copy, right?"

The other, after a moment of digging through his wraps, held up his sheet and nodded. Meanwhile, the more experienced robber listened to make sure they hadn't been overheard.

Then they began searching the shelves, checking off the requirements on the list as they found books they were looking for. All the while they kept their ears open for the sound of trampling feet or flapping wings.

As the master thief went to grab the last book that was needed, he hesitated. He was in the section that kept account of each dragon's life, from hatching to death, if they were dead yet. His hand rested on a spine of a gigantic purple book that had the name _Spyro_ etched in gold.

Did he really want to do this? Sure, there was a big paycheck involved, but they were putting these books in very dangerous hands. Spyro is the only one whose ever stood in this guy's way. If the young dragon had a secret or a weakness, it was in here.

Then he thought of all of the other thieves that dragon had killed. His cash revenues had taken a severe drop since that dragon became active because people he worked with ended up getting scorched.

Besides, if he didn't show up with this, his temporary employer would probably kill him in a fit of rage. It probably wouldn't be quick either. That thought alone sent shivers down his spine.

He grabbed the book off the shelf and checked with the younger thief to make sure they had everything. Once they had confirmed everything, they made a beeline for the exit.

As they made their way out of the vaults and into the starry but moonless night, a large figure flew out of the darkness. Both robbers dropped to the ground and froze in hopes that the creature wouldn't notice them.

Just as the dragon was passing over them, the junior partner sneezed loudly.

A moment later, the shout of "Thieves!" echoed throughout the clearing, followed by that of many flapping wings as more of the beasts took to the skies. At the same time, both robbers rose to their feet and ran at top speed.

"Head for the trees," the master thief shouted, "Quickly!"

The vaults had been built in the middle of a forest. It meant that the dragons Archives were well hidden but it also that anyone who found it had cover to hide in. Earlier it had supplied the robbers with places to spy from. Now, as they hit the tree line it provided them with a means of escape.

As they got out of the dragons' line of sight, the lesser thief yelled back "Ha, Ha! You can't catch us."

Suddenly, one of the dragons, a large blue one, dropped down between the trees and swatted him like a bug. His bag kept sliding though, so the master thief grabbed it and kept running. He cursed under his breath. 'Stupid rookie should've known this wasn't the time. Now I'm stuck with a double load,' he thought furiously.

By the time he reached the temporary portal, he realized that, without his partner, he wouldn't have to give up a cut of the profits tomorrow. With that happy thought, he hopped into the magical device, which turned off behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

"Spyro!" a voice bellowed from the ledge of the cavern. "Wake up, there's an emergency meeting being called."

I poked my head out from under my covers and yawned. Then I uncurled my body and crawled out of bed, noting that I would need a new one soon, as the nestling size was becoming a tight fit. I stretched my muscles, sore from growing pains and was about to start for the entrance to my cave when I realized I didn't hear Sparx's wings beating against the air.

I looked around for a moment, unable to find him. "Sparx! Where are you, buddy?"

At this statement, I felt a ticklish sensation that started between my horns and moved forward down the center of my face. Then the dragonfly poked his head into view from above. At such close range, I could see him yawn as he crawled into my nose before he smiled and said, "I'm right here. Is it time to get up already?"

I looked around. "It is kind of dark for morning, isn't it?" I stated.

"Yeah, definitely." The little insect responded.

While I plodded toward the door, Sparx stayed crawled onto my shoulder. It worried me because, up until a couple weeks ago, he was always the first one up and moving. 'Just one more thing to add to his ever growing list, I guess.'

As I stepped through curtains that were spelled to keep out the weather and bugs, The dark, starry sky confirmed that it was still night. Dawn wasn't far off though; the sky to the east was just starting to lighten. It was a bit windy but that was always the case up in the mountains.

The owner of the voice was a muscular green dragon standing in the middle of the small, grassy plateau that made up my 'front lawn.' He was about middle aged but the signs of this were only visible in the daytime, when his scales reflected the light with less luster than mine or the hatchlings'.

"Hey Nestor." I said as I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, "What's up?"

His gentle, soothing voice was filled with worry as he responded, "Trouble, I'm afraid. Thieves broke into the Vaults. One of them got away."

"Why would thieves break into there? There's no eggs and that's about the only reason those rag roaches come around."

"It's going to be discussed at the meeting. Come on, its going to start soon."

With that, we both spread our wings and allowed the winds to carry us into the dark sky.

My cave was a couple miles away from everyone else in the homeland, a safety precaution suggested by the elders to make it harder for my enemies to locate me. Because of this, Nestor and I were the last two dragons to arrive on the meeting grounds.

We saw the field long before we reached it. It was a valley between two grassy hills that was lower than any other place for miles. At the edge of the west side was a cliff, after which, the ground seemed to be level with the usual dips in the landscape. It was from this cliff that a speaker would address the crowd that gathered below.

On the cliff were lamps, recently installed and powered by the first ever water mill in the dragon realms, just a few miles away from town.

Even as we reached the clearing, I was already making plans to head back home after the meeting and catching up on the sleep I'd missed. The thought of my cozy bed was very comforting right then and I felt a pang of regret that I wasn't there at that moment.

As we landed, Sparx went back to my shoulder.

"You feeling okay buddy?" I asked as I turned my head toward him.

"Yeah, just tired."

Sparx had been stopping to rest more and more often of late. He had started needing the breaks about a year ago. Before that started, no matter how tired he felt, he would have been willing to stay airborne. I'd tried several times to ask him what's wrong but he refused to tell me.

I looked around at the other dragons. The youngest adults were a couple nesting years younger than Nestor. It wasn't that younger dragons weren't allowed. There were the thirty or so six-year-olds and myself as proof of that. It's just that there weren't any dragons of the ages in between that age group and mine, neither here nor anywhere else in the artisan lands.

Everyone seemed to be glancing my way as they talked in small groups but that was nothing unusual. Even before I had gained my reputation as a hero, I was the only hatchling running around the Artisan Homeland. Heck, until the current babies came into existence, I was the only Artisan child. So, even when I was little, I was the center of attention. It could get quite annoying. Especially when I'd just been awoken and forced to fly all they way into town before the sun is even peaking over the horizon.

Everyone fell silent as a brown dragon named Nevin, stepped onto the overlook above the clearing.

"Last night, two thieves broke into the Vaults. We managed to kill one of them, but the other escaped with some of our records."

He fell silent for a moment to let this fact sink in before continuing. "Fortunately, we have confirmed that we have copies of everything they stole in the mountain vault. We will make new copies to replace…"

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Oswin, a blue with white horns. "After this is over, you need to go to the Dojo. The elders are going to have a meeting but they want you to be there too."

"Why?"

"Not here."

I turned my attention back to the ledge as someone from the audience shouted a question that I missed.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is true. One of the books stolen was all the notes on the catastrophe in the year of the fire dragon."

As thick silence fell over the clearing, I realized two things. One, that was my hatching year, and two…

"Why does everyone keep staring at me?"

After my outburst, they all looked away and the meeting continued but I couldn't really focus anymore. All I wanted to do was take my anger out on something. Where's a sheep when you need one.

* * *

The year of the fire dragon comes from the fact that, in the zodiac, there are five elemental dragons, earth, metal, water, wood and fire. The element of the dragon coinsides with the change in elements that occure at the end of each 12 year cycle. I thought it seemed appropriate for Spyro to be born in the fire dragon year.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

By the time the meeting ended, the sun was already well above the horizon, so I had to fly with it's glare in my eyes the whole way to the Dragon Dojo's portal.

After Sparx and I landed, I bunted a sheep across the clearing, into a corner post of an open pavilion. Sparx quickly ate the butterfly that appeared as a result.

Further away, across a bridge, which was built over a shallow stream was a second pavilion that was Identical to the one I was near. 'Why do we need that when we could just jump over it or walk through the six inch deep water' I wondered to myself.

We were the first from the Artisan family to arrive, as the elders had to stay behind until the meeting was completely dispersed.

As I watched, a dragon, whose color tone was such a light purple that it verged on white, landed in the clearing.

"Hi Ivor. How are things going for the Peace Keepers?"

"Well enough. We heard about last night. I wish I could have been there to catch that egg stealer."

I smiled "Yeah, me too! I'd have given him a nice rump roast to remember me by."

Over the next few minutes, the rest of the elders arrived. As soon as there were enough representatives from each dragon family, the gathering started.

Lindar stepped forward with a piece of paper in his grasp. "What I hold in my hand is a list taken off of the thief who… didn't get away. It's the topics that are covered by the stolen books."

"What's important about it?" This came from Conan.

Lindar proceeded to list the topics, "dragon anatomy, physiology, psychology, cultures, connections with magic, Recent History and..." he hesitated.

"And what?"

"Out with it man."

He reluctantly continued, "It states, underlined, everything available on Spyro."

I took a deep breath and sighed. That's why I had been called here. "So some one plans on attacking us and now and who ever it is wants information on dragons in general and on me specifically."

"Yes, either that, or the thief will probably auction the books and hand them off to the highest bidder, who would, without a doubt, have such plans."

I felt a smile growing on my face as I stated, "Then I guess we'll just have to get ready for the fight ahead. We can tell everyone and…"

"You know we can't do that," said another elder stated, in the same gentle tone a parent might tell their hatchlings why they shouldn't burn the grass in the fields. His name escaped me for the moment.

"What do you mean, 'we can't do that'?" I asked in a frustrated tone as I slapped my tail loudly against the concrete floor of the pavilion. Didn't they see that we couldn't afford to sit around and wait, when we knew that an attack was coming.

"Because there are too few of us to risk losing in battle. The Peace Keepers are the fighters. That's why they made it through the catastrophe with some younger dragons and had the largest number of eggs that hatched that year.

"Heck," he continued "if it were possible, we would have kept you from fighting Gnasty and everyone else after him but it was clear that we didn't really have a choice."

Smoke billowed out of my nostrils, stressing my annoyance. I knew that some were unhappy with the fact that at an age where most would run to get help at the first sign of danger, I was fighting in the thick of it. They would have preferred it if I had cultivated the more peaceful talents I had shown when I was younger. No one had ever been so blunt about it before though.

I wasn't the only one who was mad, the Peace Keeper elders were just as angry, if the clouds of smoke around their heads and their swishing tails were anything to go by. Something told me that everyone in their family would know what was being discussed here by nightfall.

Sparx flitted by my ear and whispered, "Calm down, this isn't the time to lose your temper."

After a moment, I asked, "What is the catastrophe?"

Shockingly, it was Astor, who was usually never lucid, that answered my question. "It was a plague. It attacked everyone. Dragons of all ages and families dropping like flies. It affected the oldest the least, or was it the eggs?"

Ivor picked up where the old gray left off. "The older dragons made it through with the most survivors, and second place went to the eggs of your generation. At any given time in our history, there were always a few thousand dragons. Now our population barely tops off at three-hundred. Half of which are six-year-olds."

I thought about the age gap at home, of my parents, whom I'd been told were 'caught in a thunderstorm during a flight.' Could this have been their true fate?

Another thought struck me. "Then, if the eggs did survive, why was I the only hatchling in the Artisan homeland?"

"We were hit the hardest." Stated Lindar. "Some of us think you made it through because, although your father was an Artisan, your mother was a Peace Keeper."

This was just too much. I needed to sit down and think but that wasn't going to happen here.

Lindar seemed to be thinking along the same lines. " Spyro, I think we've given you enough to think about. How about you head home and mull it over. It's a lot but whoever gets a hold of those books will soon know it. You need clearheaded in order to do this."

I certainly didn't need to be told twice. I flew straight through the portal and back home. The flight home was a blur, as I was focused more on my thoughts than my surroundings.

On my arrival, I landed and ran around my plateau, chasing mountain goats to calm my nerves. It worked too, after charging around for half an hour I was ready to go inside.

When I finally arrived at the cavern, I saw that a stack of books was resting on the ledge in front of it. On them was a note, weighed down with a stone.

_Spyro:_

_These are the Mountain Vault copies of the stolen books. It is believed to be for your benefit that you should read these. Looks like you've got some studying ahead. I hope you don't get too bored. See you soon._

_Terra_

I smiled as I read the note. Terra was Nestor's mate and the closest thing to a mother I ever had. She raised me from the egg until I was old enough to fend for myself.

I looked at the pile in front of me sighed, and opened one. "This had better be worth it."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a far away realm, the thief stood in an abandoned warehouse. Beside him was the pile of stolen books.

He held, in his hand, a wooden whistle. He was supposed to blow it once he had found a good meeting spot. It was magically hexed so that it would be heard by the spellcaster who made it, no matter where it was and he could hone in on its location.

It had been an hour, A FULL HOUR, since the thief had blown it but as angry as he was, he didn't dare leave. His fear and greed overruled his fury. He looked at the books again. Most of them were dull shades of brown and gray, looking as if they could belong in this dusty old place.

It was only Spyro's biography that defied the illusion. With its intricate purple and gold designs it looked like something that would be found in a mansion or a palace library.

An overpowering urge to knock the pile over suddenly seized the thief and he walked over to it. He was about reach out and push the pile when suddenly, a portal appeared on the floor.

Three beings came out of it. The first was a large, bipedal dinosaur bearing a club. He was followed by a big green four legged brute with rockets on his back and spiky anklets adorning on each leg.

Finally, a little red-orange lizard with a horn sticking out of the middle of his head arrived. He clothed in a white shirt, purple pants, black shoes and a purple cape. Around his neck was a red amulet suspended from a band of purple cloth. In one hand, he held the golden staff of a scepter that had a red jewel set on top. The rock glowed with power, so much so that every movement the scepter made left a glittering trail in the air.

The thief took a step back and swallowed dryly before speaking. "Hello Ripto."

The ilttle dinosaur gave a small nod to acknowledge that he heard the thief but he was already focused on their surroundings. "Couldn't you have chosen a better location? I knew not to expect anything fancy from the likes of you but, honestly, a musty old building?" Then his attention fell on the books. "So, you were successful, then." He said as he walked over to them.

What a jerk, the thief thought but aloud only said, "Where's the gems you promised?"

Now he turned to the thief, even though he still kept his emotions hidden. "You'll get your gems as soon as I know these are the real things you filthy, rag covered snake. I could just picture you trying to get your hands on my money even if you failed retrieve what I asked for." After a moment, he added, "If that turns out to be the case, I'm going to feed you to Gulp, like I did with the last person who attempted to trick me."

At this statement, the big green beast let out a roar of joy.

"Calm down boy," Ripto said to him fondly before turning back to the books.

He took one off of the top of the pile and looked at a couple random pages in it. He did the same with two others before pulling the purple book out of the middle of the pile. His emotionless mask fell away to reveal a smile full of malice as he looked at the cover. When he opened it, he started cackling.

He waved the scepter and a bag brimming with gems appeared before the thief "Here's your gems. Now get out of my sight."

Said thief grabbed the bag and prepared to make a run for the exit.

Unfortunately, he failed to notice that Gulp had gotten impatient and walked over to him. He turned just in time to see the creature's open maw.

Chomp! As Gulp proceeded to swallow his mouthful whole Ripto snapped the book shut and looked up at him. "Did I give you permission to eat him?" he asked in a condescending tone.

"No." The large Dinosaur responded sullenly.

"I'll let this one slide but if that happens again, you will be punished. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

Then he waved his scepter again, causing both the gems and the books to disappear, with the exception of the one grasped tightly in his other hand.

"Come on. I need to get back and start looking over my new books." Within moments, the dusty interior of the warehouse was once again empty, except for an inactive portal on the floor.

* * *

In the numbers for the dragon populations, I factored in the female adults and the other dragons in Spyro's generation.


	4. Chapter 4

I want to apologize to all of my readers. Usually the only time I'll have gaps this long between posts is between two stories, not in the middle of one. I also want to say sorry for the number of errors that are probably throughout the next two chapters. Neither have been looked over by other people but they have been finished since late August and I just need to get them out. If I don't, I think I'll go mad.

**Chapter 4**

As I sat in my treasure cavern, reading an open book by the sunlight reflected off of the gems, I sighed.

It had been two weeks since the books had been left on my front step. Since then, I had looked at so many pages that, whenever I closed my eyes, I saw words running across my vision. Of course, that wasn't much different than what I saw when they were open. I've made it through about a quarter of the pile before me. I probably would have had more done if it weren't for an unexpected problem.

When I first took the stack of books inside, I had immediately started reading the one about me. For the first hour and a half, I was doing fine but then the words started jumping around on me, literally. Whenever I tried to focus on the lines, the words on the page would shuffle themselves around.

When I finally realized the book had been hexed, I went to Sunrise Springs, to see if Bianca could fix it. After examining it for a couple minutes, she told me that the spell was cast through another object, which this book was magically connected to. When I explained to her why I had these, she quickly identified the other copy as the object. To remove the spell she needed the other book.

Obviously, I had no clue where to even start looking for said book. So reading my biography was out.

Since then, I had focused entirely on reading the other books. Luckily, they didn't seem to have as strong of a connection to their stolen copies. Every once and a while, one word would stroll to another part of the page, scramble itself up or become invisible but it wasn't bad enough to make the pages completely unreadable.

But right now, I was so bored I couldn't focus at all. I wasn't even thinking about the book that I had in front of me.

I got up, closed _The Bio-magical Properties of the Dragon Body_ and walked toward the tunnel out of the gem filled room.

Sparx, who had been resting on my shoulder, lifted into the air and asked, "taking a break?"

"Actually, I'm going to call it quits for the afternoon. I've done nothing but read since these books were dropped off. I have so many words bouncing off the inside of my skull that I'm surprised it hasn't exploded from the pressure yet."

As I walked through the hall, my mind wondered to some of the things I'd seen in my book, while it was still readable.

The first few pages discussed my parentage and the plague's affects over those around me. Then I turn a page and Bam! There's a statement about my hatching and what it meant to the older dragons.

"_Spyro was the only hatchling of the Artisan World in year of the plague. He was also the last of his generation to hatch and therefore was the youngest dragon in the realms for the next 12 years. He is the first dragon in recorded history to hatch purple, rather than have his scales develop the color as he grows. The family quickly came to consider him their little miracle." _Afterwards, it goes on and on about how happy everyone was I survived.

Above it there was even a film, showing me hatching, which had been magically put into the book. There on the page, I watch the events unfold.

For a moment, there was just a little egg lying on the grass. It suddenly started rocking back and forth. After a moment it broke, releasing me to the world. I looked around, saw the camera and pose for it. Then I took a deep breath, a step forward, and… "squeak!" I think it was meant to be a roar but a hatchlings lungs just aren't built for that. The film continued, showing that I proceeded to strut around, until I suddenly tripped over a piece of eggshell and crashed to the ground. Then the camera moved to an interviewer who was talking to Nestor, a green dragon with a tan nose, and Terra, a brown dragoness with red stripes running down her back.

The camera darted between them and myself. Focusing on Nestor talking about how happy he and Terra were to be taking care of me. Then it turned to me again, revealing that I was now batting at Terra's tail. After a moment the camera turned to Terra's face, and the interviewer asked her what this sole hatchling would mean for the Artisans. While she talked, it momentarily centered on me again, as I watched something off screen.

Then it moved back to Terra, Nestor and the interviewer. "Do you think the disease may cause him life long health issues, being that the egg did catch a mild form of ... Ouch!" Suddenly his tail comes swinging into the picture, with a little purple form hanging on by its teeth.

It was embarrassing to watch. I had cringed at the thought of what else might be in that book. Then I felt horrified that someone else was looking at it and seeing the same stuff I saw.

I walked out to the shelf that overlooked my plateau. There, I sat in the sunlight and cleaned my wings for a few minutes, while I thought about how I wanted to spend the rest of the day.

Finally, I asked Sparx, whom was hovering over my head, "How do you feel about making a trip to Avalar, buddy."

"I wouldn't mind." Sparx responded. "When will we leave?"

"Right now," I stated and launched myself into the air.

Not long into my flight, I found a natural thermal and used it to climb higher and fly faster as I left the mountains. As I flew with the wind coming from behind me and the sun heating my back and wings, I felt all concerns just fall back to the ground from which they had followed me.

It was just Sparx and I, stretching our wings and looking over the world laid out before us, no limits, no walls, no boundaries.

I performed an aerial loop, curving upward, until it seemed that the whole world had flipped upside down. Then, just as quickly, I righted myself, completing the trick that I had just recently become physically capable of doing without the help of an orb or some other highly magical object.

"Look," Sparx said, bringing me back to reality, "there's the portal."

And there it was, indeed. It stood on a grassy hill, surrounded by a few large, trees and many easily frightened sheep. As I flew over their heads, they scattered in all directions. I laughed and entered the portal without making any contact with the ground.

A while back, the super portal had been moved from Winter Tundra to Summer Forest. When we landed there, we found out that I wasn't the only dragon who thought it was a good idea to drop in. There was a family under the trees. I looked at an ocean blue dragoness basking in the sun next to a small pool of water. Beside her rested two hatchlings, one was baby blue and the other was greenish white in color. Closer to me, a blue white dragon with pink horns and a pink nose spike was playing with three other babies, two were the same collor as him and the other one was the same shade as his mother. Each of the hatchlings had a full-grown dragonfly hovering next to them.

I quickly corrected myself: they aren't babies; they're six years old. I was only two years older when I faced Gnasty for the first time. It's just hard for me to think of them that way, after watching them hatch.

'Is that how the older dragons think of me?' I wondered to myself.

After a moment, one of the tussling youngsters, the blue one, noticed me and waved. At this, the others turned and also saw me.

The father came over and said "Hi Spyro."

As he greeted me, I finally realized who he was. "Baruti! It's good to see you again. What are you doing so far out?" It wasn't often that the dream weavers leave their realms, so it really was a big surprise to see him all the way out here.

"The kids were getting bored of their lessons," he said, gesturing to the youngsters, all five of whom had come over, with their dragonflies in tow. "So I decided to take them on a vacation. Since dragon shores is in the middle of hurricane season, this seemed like a much better place. What about you?"

"I've been trying to get information out of books for the last two weeks. Only it's very difficult to do when they're hexed. I'm taking the day off."

"Do they have something to do with those stolen records?" The older dragon asked, suddenly becoming very serious.

"Yes, I have to look through the spare copies."

"Should we be concerned about more trouble, no one seems to know much about what's happening."

I felt a flash of anger that no one was handing out warnings. Two weeks that could have been spent preparing, all wasted. I took a deep breath to calm myself and stated, "You should definitely be worried. A lot of information on our strengths and weaknesses has been taken from those vaults. I don't know why the elders are so tight jawed about this but trouble is looming like a thunder cloud on the horizon."

One of the children whimpered and Baruti turned to them. "Shame on me. We're here to get away from all the stress and I'm just making things worse, talking of robberies and danger." He looked back toward me. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to worry later. You came here looking for a break, so I'll stop pestering and let you relax."

He smiled at me before he wondered over to his wife and began talking with her. He didn't look like he'd set his concern aside. In fact, judging by the concern that invaded his wife's previously relaxed expression, they were probably talking about it right now.

After a moment I was distracted when one of the hatchlings asked, "Hey, Spyro, how are you?" I looked to see that it was the blue one who had been playing with Baruti.

"Good."

"Wanna play tag?" He asked excitedly.

"Well, actually…"

The green girl tapped me, and exclaimed, "tag, your it." Then they all scattered, laughing as they ran off in different directions.

"I guess I'm playing tag," I said to myself before giving chase.

For the next several minutes we chased each other around. Changing whom was the hunter with little taps as we dashed and glided all over the place.

Then, at one point, someone yelled, "dog pile on Spyro," and, next thing I knew, I was pined to the ground by the weight of five small, giggling kids. Eventually, I wriggled out from underneath them, turning the dog pile into a play fight. When I grew tired, I let my fellow tusslers pin me.

"Alright," I said in mock submission, "you win! I surrender, your just too good for me." As I finished my statement, we all started giggling.

After they got off of me, I sat in the shade of a tree. All of the children followed me. As I lay down and curled my tail around me, the children kept suggesting games to play next, more tag, hide and seek, a sheep launching competition. Finally, I said, "I'm just going to stay here for a while."

The boys ran off and continued to play, but the girls, a blue dragon, one of the white ones and the green just sat in front of me. After a moment I asked, "don't you want to go play too."

"We want to stay with you," The blue one said and the other two nodded.

"You'll get bored, I'm not going to do anything interesting."

"That's okay," the bluish white scaled child said.

The green quickly added, "we like being with you."

"So, what are your names?" There were 150 dragon hatchlings, I can't remember that many names. Plus, they'd all grown quite a bit and their collors have changed. I think they understood that too, because they didn't seem to take any offense.

The white hatchling introduced herself first, "I'm Caroline."

Then the dark blue one said "and my name's Abby."

"Lucy." The green stated calmly.

I nodded as I tried to memorize their names.

For a while, we just sat sprawled own in the grass. I must have dozed off at some point, because I woke up to the sound of, "Hey Buddy! How's it going."

I opened my eyes and looked up to see a cheetah smiling at me. "Hi, Hunter."

As I woke up a bit more I realized that he wasn't the only person there. Next to him stood Bianca, ex servant of the Sorceress, as of six years ago, who was now Hunters wife. To the other side of him stood Elora, a fawn who was usually busy keeping peace and order throughout Avalar. Beside her stood the Professor, a mole who uses scientific genius to help others, although if something goes wrong with what he does, it often makes matters worse. Hovering in the between The Professor and Elora was Zoe, a powerful fairy.

"Hey guys, long time, no see! I don't think I've ever seen all of you together like this before!" I suddenly noticed that some of them were smiling, some trying to hide smiles, and I could hear Sparx, the children and their dragonflies snickering behind me.

"What did they do to me?" I asked and stood up quickly. As I did so, I felt something gently brush against my wings and my neck. I brought my wings out in front of me to find strings of white, blue, yellow and purple flowers hanging from them, tied together by their stems. I looked down at my chest to see a wreath of the same flowers was draped around my neck. I felt a blush rise to my cheeks as I was flooded with anger and embarrassment.

I turned to the children behind me and they all burst out in laughter, and the sound had chased off my anger as their contagious joy spread to myself and those who stood behind me. It's an affect that only laughter of the little children and babies seems to have, making you happy no matter what. I wonder if there's some type of long forgotten magic behind it.

When we had calmed down, I asked, "What are you all doing here?"

"Actually," the Professor said as everyone in the group became suddenly serious, "we have a problem. You see Spyro, yesterday, in my lab… well…" he trailed off.

'Oh boy' I thought to myself as I fought back a moan. Some of the greatest threats to the realms started in the professor's lab. I braced myself for the worst. "What happened?"

"Red's disappeared," Elora stated.

"Please tell me this is another joke to go with what the hatchlings have just done."

"Afraid not buddy," Hunter said.

The Professor fiddled with his glasses as he stated. "I couldn't find so much as a hint to show how he might have escaped. So I called Hunter and he brought Bianca over."

"I found traces of magic where he was being held," Bianca stated.

"So now there's a one foot vengeful maniac on the loose on top of everything else?"

Zoe spoke next, "And Elora and I are about to spread the word, everyone will be on the lookout for Red."

"Are you getting anywhere with your books?" Bianca asked, changing the subject.  
"Slowly. I'm here to take the afternoon off." I looked up at the sky, "which I seem to have used up sleeping." I sighed and added, " look, I'm glad to see you all and am really concerned about Red but if I don't head home right now, I'll have to find it in the dark. Believe me, it's not fun."

"First though, I've got to get this stuff off of me." I angled my head so that I could get a grip on the flowers hanging from my wings and pull them off but paused when I saw the looks on the faces of the little girls who had collaborated in putting them on. I let the plants go and looked at them. "What?"

"We worked really hard to put those on," Caroline stated. "And you look really nice with them. Could you wear them for a while? Please?"

The other two young dragonesses started making similar comments at the same time all their talking running together so that I couldn't understand their words. I got the meaning though.

"Okay, Okay. I'll take them off tomorrow." At the comment, they fell silent and smiled happily as the boys and dragonflies, with the exclusion of Sparx, snickered.

I looked away from the young dragons and back to my friends. "Well it was nice to see you guys. I hope you enjoy your evening."

After a final wave to everyone, Sparx and I took off into the portal.

On the flight back, Sparx spent a lot of time on my left shoulder, almost as much as he spent flying. As we neared the mountains, I even had to slow down a little while he was airborne, just so that he could keep up with me.

When we reached the cave, I sat on the ledge at the entrance, looking to the west. The sun had set and there was just a tinge of light at the far edge of the sky to mark where it had been earlier. Above our heads it was black dappled with white stars.

Sparx rested quietly on my shoulder. I remembered, when I was little, that he glowed with so much light that several feet around him, the world would have been as bright as day. Over the years, the glow faded, so slowly that you couldn't really notice it from day to day, week to week or even month to month. Now I could barely see him in the darkness of dusk.

"Sparx?"

"hmmm?"

"What's wrong?"

The dragonfly paused a moment before responding in his buzzing tones, "nothing."

"That's sheep's dung Sparx." I said bitterly. "You're growing weaker by the day. You couldn't even make the flight home." Then, in a wave of anger, I balanced on my back feet long enough to slap my tail on the ground, the motion causing him to fly off of my shoulder. "We've always been honest with each other. Why are you lying to me now?" The anger left as quickly as it came, replaced by a deep sadness. I bowed my head as I stated softly, "I'm worried about you, the way you've been lately is really starting to scare me."

The dragonfly sighed and stared at me silently for a couple minutes. I began to think that he wasn't going to respond at all. Then, he asked, in a barely audible voice, "Spyro, have you ever seen any older dragons with a dragonfly?"

I paused to think about it and realized that, no, I haven't, not once in all the time I spent with them had I seen a dragonfly flittering around their heads. I shook my head to answer his question.

"Do you know why that is?"

"Did the sickness affect the dragonflies too."

"What?" Sparx asked, caught off guard but quickly realized what I was referring too. "Oh! No, nothing of the sort." He paused for a moment before stating, "Dragonflies don't have the same life span as dragons Spyro. Our aging is linked the development of the dragon we protect."

"Are you saying that your old?" I asked, shocked by the idea. I had never thought about how my best friend might age at a different rate then me, a faster one.

The dragonfly nodded, "toward the end of our lives, the only thing that keeps us healthy is the magic of the child we watch over. We get cut off automatically when they can take more hits than we naturally shield them from. Spyro, you reached that point a little over a year ago and I'm running on magical fumes."

I shook my head in disbelief before saying, "but you can't be that old yet. I'm only 18, not even half grown."

The dragonfly laughed and said, "A dragonfly without a dragon lives for only a few weeks. By our standards, I'm absolutely ancient and that's not even taking into account that I can take one more hit then most dragonflies. Most of us bottom out by our dragons sixteenth birthday. We actually spend the first two years of our lives underwater before we take to the air and get a six month hatched baby to take care of, so I'm actually almost twenty. Even by guardian dragonfly standards, I'm really old."

"There must be something we can do!" I exclaimed, starting to panic.

"There is, focus on the time we still have together."

"Oh Sparx…"

"I'm not afraid of dying Spyro. In fact, with my failing health, I think I'll be ready when my time comes but I don't want you worrying for me while I'm still here. Got it?"

"Yeah," I said in a melancholy tone.

"Do you remember the first time you had to save the Dragon Realms? What a blast we had!" The dragonfly stated, changing the subject.

"Yeah. There are few memories I cherish as much as chasing Gnasty Gnorc."

"Like what?"

"How 'bout the time I charged into Moneybags over and over again, to take back the Gems he'd taken from me and the egg he'd planned to sell while we were in the Forgotten Realms?"

"Who do you think he was going to try to sell that egg to?"

"I don't want to know."

This was the general direction our conversation took throughout the evening. We focused on the fun times in the past. As I crawled into bed later though, my thoughts moved to the future, my last thought before I fell asleep was 'what would life be like without Sparx flittering at my side?'


	5. Chapter 5

I just wanted to mention that this story will be written with the handheld Spyro Games in mind as well as the video games. This will be of some importance in this chapter and later ones.

**Chapter 5**

In my dreams, I found Kasia, one of the Dream Weavers, waiting for me on a stone outcrop. I wasn't exactly surprised to see him. The defenders of dreams would drop by quite often. Though I've often wondered, with all the nightmares that must be floating around, why they visit me so often.

We were standing on the blue cliff, overlooking a valley of pink trees under a green sky. Seeming to sense my mood, the older dragon remained silent for a time.

I eventually broke the silence, "Can I ask you something kind of personal?"

He nodded.

"When your dragonfly grew old, how did you deal with the fact that…"

"That I realized he wasn't always going to be there." The green and tan finished for me. I nodded as he let out a sigh.

"I tried to focus on the fact that he was still there, not that he wouldn't be in the future. It was difficult, I won't pretend otherwise but a fact of life is that everything dies, whether it is of old age, sickness, an accident or a battle injury."

"It doesn't make it any easier," I stated sadly.

"No, it doesn't," he said in agreement.

We lapsed into silence again for a time. At some point while we had talked, a glowing orange ocean under a black, starless sky had replaced the valley.

Looking at the creepy sight gave me an idea for why the dream weavers came by so often. "I'm nightmare prone, aren't I?"

"Very much so."

"I guess I really shouldn't be surprised, after everything I've put up with but you'd think it would die down after three years without action."

"The mind doesn't work that way," Kasia explained. "It will keep running over past events as long as you remember them and maybe even some time after you forget."

Suddenly, the ocean below us turned a bright, pulsing red.

"Well that's odd," Kasia stated.

"What is?"

"This light is being caused by some stimulus outside of your mind. You don't have anything that would glow in your room do you?"

Before I could answer, the sound of a powerful magical object casting a spell and the feeling of a jolt in my chest awoke me.

Standing in the center of my bedroom, bearing a scepter (was he on his third or fourth now?), was Ripto. He had a smug grin on his face that spoke of some sort of success, probably that getting in here without me noticing. The stone from his stick cast a shifting, pulsing glow red on the room and everything in it.

In the second my mind took to bring this image together, I went from the confusion of waking to utter fury. The monster had broken into my house, into my own bedroom. While my brain processed this, my body threw itself into motion, I tried to roll off of my back and onto the floor but got tangled up in my bed sheets and fell there instead.

I heard a flutter of wings and knew Sparx was by my side.

"Hello dragon," the little dinosaur said, "it's been a while."

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I got my footing.

In mock friendliness, he stated, "Well, I figured, seeing that it's been four years since we last saw each other, I might want to drop by. You know, return the favor for when you came to my chateau." He glanced around the room, ignoring my glare. "So, this is how the other half lives. Rather pathetic really."

"Get out of my house!"

"No, I don't think I will," he said calmly. "I'll just hang around for a little bit."

"Oh no you won't!" With that, I shook the sheet off my back and took a deep breath, preparing to roast a few scales off of the little lizard's hide. Then I breathed out and… nothing happened. I tried again, still nothing, not even a wisp of smoke. Usually, when we lose our fire breath, we at least have ice to fall back on but I had nothing. Maybe my electric breath? Not so much as a spark.

Then that I recalled how I had woken up.

"What did you do to me?" I asked, barely hiding my rising fear under my veil of fury.

"I was starting to wonder if you'd ever ask," he said, finishing the statement with a toothy grin plastered on his ugly face. " Using my talents for magic and the information out of MY new books…"

"The thieves gave the books to you?" I cut in, even as a small part of my mind said, 'well of course it was him. How else could he have found his way here?'

"Yes," he hissed, "although give isn't the word I'd chose. They charge fees almost as high as Moneybags, although, I was lucky enough to get a refund… now don't interrupt me again or I'll... wha… what are you wearing?" With his sudden change in subject, his smugness was replaced with a look of disgust.

His change in demeanor was so shocking that it caught me off guard. It took me a moment to process the question. Then I realized that I still had the plants from earlier draped around my neck and over my wings. "They're flowers." I stated quickly, since there was really no way of hiding it, and braced myself for his obnoxious laughter followed by some ugly remarks.

Instead, what I got was a growl and a hiss of "and why would you be wearing them," as he pointed his stick at my chest from a few feet away with a trembling hand.

'What's got him so spooked' I wondered to myself. Deciding that honesty was probably best at the moment, I quickly said, "some hatchlings did it as a joke while I was asleep. I'm just humoring them by keeping it on."

After a moment he seemed to revert back to a simple glare. "Then the flowers don't have any special meaning."

"No." I said, confused, as his moved his mouth as if forming words, although no sound came out. "Why? Do they mean something to you."

"None of your business," he snapped. After a moment, he seemed to recover his demeanor and carried on as if nothing had happened. "Now where was I…oh yes, now I remember. Using my new knowledge of how your disgusting species interacts with magic, I have created a spell to reroute your power away from both your breathing and flying abilities."

"Rerouted to where, Shorty?" I interjected as my mind began sending off alarm bells. 'No fire, No flight. Defenseless. Trapped.' I tried to still my thoughts and keep panic at bay. If I was going to get out of this, I needed to think.

For a moment he moved his mouth silently again, I read it as 'I don't have a clue, but I won't tell you that.' Then he snapped, "I said not to interrupt me, you little pest." He ended his statement by shooting a fireball at me, which I barely dodged.

"As I was saying," he said, starting his speech back up, "I have created a spell to disable your whole species. The only thing I needed was one of you beasts to cast it on. So I figured, since your book clearly showed the remote location where you were living right now, you would make the perfect choice."

"So all the dragons are under this spell?" I felt fear, fully-fledged fear. My breath abilities were the main defense I had against not only Ripto but about a quarter of his army as well. If all the dragons were affected similarly, we were in trouble.

"Yes and tomorrow morning, when my soldiers move in, they will be helpless. I'll probably be the ruler of your lands by sunset."

"Keep dreaming, Shorty. We won't need all of our abilities to beat you. Come morning, every dragon will be ticked off and ready to fight."

"You mean like they were when I separated the young dragonflies from the babies? Oh wait, that was just one twelve-year-old and his dragonfly."

" It was enough to beat you!" I countered angrily.

"That's not the point and you know it. Tell me Spyro, did any of the older dragons ever try to help you track down those dragonflies. How about the fireflies or the hearts of the lands? Did any of them even come to fend off the attacks from my soldiers?"

I knew as he finished his statement that he had a point. One I really didn't want to acknowledge. "So, now that you've had time to boast about your little plan, what are you going to do? Kill me and leave my corpse for the others to find?"

"Wow! You are developing quite a vivid imagination, aren't you." He responded. The smirk on his face was quickly replaced with a serious frown. As he carried on, he started waving his scepter around. "No, that won't be happening. There's an unfortunate little catch in my scheme. You see Spyro, with a spell such as this, its weakest point is the object at it's focal point, which, in this case, happens to be you. If someone were to lift the spell off of you or kill you, the other dragons would be freed instantly. Therefore, when I leave tonight, I'll have to take you with me."

At the end of this statement, he pointed the scepter at me and it released a flash, causing my legs to buckle. "Hey!" I yelled in shock and anger as I collapsed.

"Spyro!" Sparx cried out. Then Ripto waved his scepter again and the dragonfly vanished, just like he had the first time little lizard scattered the insects.

* * *

There is definitely going to be a sequel to this story. The reason for Ripto's reaction when he saw the flowers Spyro was wearing will be explained in the course of that story, rather than this one. I just want it to be clear that it wasn't some random, odd behavior I put in.


End file.
